


Interstellar Relations

by mrpicard



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Movies)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Bartenders, Celebrities, Crush at First Sight, Crushes, Fangirls, France (Country), Germany, Lectures, M/M, Secret Crush, Unrequited Crush, Unversity, autograph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 02:04:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11636664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrpicard/pseuds/mrpicard
Summary: Alex sees Picard in person for the very first time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This short ficlet series tells the story of a moment that is mentioned in the first part of [In These Arms](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1284832?view_full_work=true).

 

_HAMBURG, GERMANY_

_Earth_

 

 

 

"Hi, Alex."  
  
The young bartender looked up from the glasses he had just put back on the shelf. "Hi, Thoril."

"Sorry I'm late, I was stuck in shuttle traffic again. At least I had something to read this time." The Andorian pulled an old-fashioned magazine out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Alex. "Here - got this from a French friend of mine. The new cocktails on page 29 really look like something we could try."

"Thanks," Alex said, sat down, opened the magazine - and froze when his gaze fell on an announcement a few pages before the one Thoril had suggested.

 

_**1ER OCTOBRE 2381** _

_**CAPITAINE JEAN-LUC PICARD** _

_**UNIVERSITÉ PARIS-SORBONNE ( PARIS-IV)** _  
  
_**SUJECT: "Relations interstellaires au fil du temps"** _

  
Alex stared at the rather large picture below the text.

It was _him_.

 _He_ would be here.

Okay, in Paris.

_Close enough._

He looked up from the magazine. "Thoril?"

"Yes?"

"Could you take over my shift the day after tomorrow?"

"Sure. Why?"

"There's... umm... something I have to do."


	2. Chapter 2

 

_PARIS, FRANCE_

_Earth_

 

 

 

 

Alex stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the huge crowd in front of the lecture hall. 

_'Shit.'_

It was not exactly his fault that he was barely on time - the shuttle to Paris had been delayed - but still, whoever was to blame, nothing would change the fact that _not_ arriving early for open lecture by Jean-Luc Picard himself was definitely rather... unwise.

_'I **have** to see him.'_

Him, the man who commanded the flagship of the Federation, the finest captain in Starfleet whose missions had been pretty much standard in every interstellar political science lecture that Alex had attended during his own university time.

Him, who also - at least on holo-pictures - happened to be the most attractive man Alex had ever seen.  
  
_'I've got to get through this crowd. Whatever it takes.'_  
  
He looked around and grinned when his gaze fell on a nearby cabinet with a tray and a few bottles of water. He walked over to it, adjusted his bow tie and his shirt, took the tray and put two bottles of water on it, then raised his hand with the tray over his head and began to walk towards the crowd in front of the lecture hall. "Coming through, water for the captain, coming through! Excuse me! Thank you! Coming through!"

The people hastily made way - no one wanted to stand in the way of water for a Starfleet legend - and Alex could not help but smile when he finally reached the door to the lecture hall and walked right inside. He put the tray on a desk next to the door and then turned around to see if there was still a seat somewhere.

No such luck.

He sighed - university life at its finest - and walked up to the stairs and sat down next to a few other people who had also not managed to find a seat.

_'Whatever it takes, whatever it takes.'_

 


	3. Chapter 3

Alex had just managed to find a sitting position that didn't hurt _too_ much when a door at the front of the lecture hall opened and a short, bald man in a Starfleet uniform walked out with a PADD in his hand.

The audience fell silent almost immediately - Picard's natural aura of authority was absolute - and Alex had a hard time not to gape _too_ much since the good captain looked even better in person than on holo-pictures: The huge hands, the short but strong legs, the determined look on his incredibly handsome face...

Hell, he wasn't just "even better".

He was _perfect_.

Picard quickly reached the small podium, switched on the voice amplifier and began to speak. "Bonjour à tous, je suis honoré d'être ici parmi vous en ce jour..."

That voice.

 _God, that **voice**_.

It sounded even better in person than it had in the mission logs Alex had listened to, and the fact that Picard was speaking French this time only made it all even more exciting - the natural beauty of the language and his voice went perfectly together.

Unfortunately, the lecture did not take long - or so it seemed to Alex, who wished for it to go on indefinitely - and Picard switched off the voice amplifier, nodded at the audience that was knocking on the wooden tables in appreciation, took his PADD and then walked away from the podium.

He did not get far, however: A woman who had been sitting in the front row not far from the stairs stood up from her seat and placed herself right in Picard's path. "May I have an autograph, Captain?"

"I beg your pardon?" Picard asked, visibly uncomfortable.

"Please?" she pressed. "I have autographs from all the captains in Starfleet - you're the only one still missing!"

"I'm sorry, Madam, I really have to get back to my ship," Picard said, looked once more at the fan and then walked on and vanished through the same door that he had used to come in.

"So it's true," an older man sitting next to Alex remarked. "He really _is_ as much of a jerk as some people say he is."

"A jerk?" Alex echoed.

"Didn't you see how he just treated that fan?"

"He simply didn't want to sign an autograph," Alex argued. "Besides, if he _had_ signed one, every single person in this lecture hall would have wanted one as well and he'd have been surrounded forever."

"So what? He's a celebrity, he has to live with that."

"He's also a human being, and it clearly made him uncomfortable to be asked for an autograph. It's probably just not his thing."

The man eyed Alex suspiciously. "Are you from the Enterprise?"

"No...?"

"Then why are you defending him? You don't even know him."

"Neither do _you_."

"From the way you were looking at him during the lecture I'd say you'd like to know him a lot better than I'd ever care to," the man remarked, stood up from the stairs and then walked away - but not without looking back and flashing a broad grin at Alex.

The young bartender glared at the man but did not do anything else; the last thing he wanted was to get into a fist fight with a stranger.

And just why the hell _did_ he care so much, anyway? Picard was probably already back aboard his ship by now, preparing for his next mission that would no doubt take him far away from Earth.

Alex looked at the door through which the captain had walked out.

_'I wish I could have gone with him.'_

Wait, what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of thanks for help with some of the French go to [@SciFiTrash](https://twitter.com/scifitrash)!


End file.
